Highlights: Cuomo at Democratic Governors conference

Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke at a panel of the Democratic Governor’s Association in New York City today. Here are some highlights from a Q&A with reporters:

On redistricting:

“I think the maps that have been put out are unacceptable. I think we need better maps, better products from this latest go-round.”

“You can see that these maps were politically drawn.”

“Also, I think the process itself needs to be reformed. Otherwise, we’re gonna go through this again and again and again. So you need a process reform. They have been complaining about this problem for 40 years. This is an argument and a discussion and a lamentation every 10 years.”

“So I want to try to accomplish two things: One, how do we get better maps for this year? Two, how we make sure this is the last time we go through and we don’t do the same thing in 10 years with another group of reporters and another group of elected officials.”

On renewable energy:

“There are locations where you can do renewable and locations where you can’t do renewable. … We have the renewable energy in upstate New York. We can’t get it to downstate New York, which is where the demand is.”

“I think it’s more ‘all of the above’ than any one strategy. That’s what we’re trying to do. Part of it is retrofitting all dirty plants downstate, part of it is renewables downstate, part of it is getting the excess supply upstate, which is often cheap. There is affordable hydropower in Northern New York that would be a great asset for the area of high demand lying in New York City.”

On better disclosure of campaign contributors:

Q: “You’ve criticized unlimited contributions. … Why would you lend your name to an event that operates under those rules that you criticized?”Cuomo: “Under what rules?”Q: “That corporations can make unlimited soft money contributions.”Cuomo: “Well, I don’t know what their rules, their finance rules, are. I assume they’re following the law.”